One Last Fight
by southerngentleman1
Summary: After Operation Black Eden, Nathan Hale should be dead. But miraculously he is still alive, and he has one more fight left, the outcome of which will determine the fate of the whole galaxy.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: I own nothing put the words on this page. Still getting used to this interface, so please forgive any issues. Just as well, this is my first fan fiction so please no flames. Just constructive criticism.

Nathan Hale had done the impossible. Granted, he had done the impossible before, be it almost singlehandedly destroying the Chimera in England, or surviving project Abraham, but this took the cake. Hale, Capelli, Major Blake, and X-Ray team boarded the Chimeran battleship with a nuke, and made it to the airspace above the Chicxulub crater in Mexico. As usual, Hale and Capelli were the only ones who survived to see their plans come to fruition. Hale had fought his way to the reactor of the ship alone, fought and killed Daedalus alone, and now he was arming Nellie, the atomic weapon that would destroy the chimera's fleet, and hopefully end the war that claimed the lives of billions. He stole a glance at the body of Daedalus, if it could be called that, and began walking towards it. Killing him hadn't been difficult. One would think that killing the leader of the Chimera would take more effort that shooting some nodes on the reactor as he passed by them. As Hale walked closer, he felt a tingling sensation creep through him, when all of a sudden a massive surge flew through him. IT was painful yet exhilarating. When the tingling left him, he had an odd sensation in his hands. He stared at them with curiosity, but was broken from his reverie by the guttural growls of Chimera and the laser like sound of Bullseye rifles firing. He turned to face his attackers, and on a whim opened his palm in the general direction of the Chimera. To his surprise and sadistic glee, a powerful shockwave barreled out of his palm, shredding the hybrids in his path.

"What in the hell?" Hale questioned.

He began making his way to the shuttle where Capelli was located, firing a burst from his rifle here, and a shockwave from his hand there, accompanied by the liberal application of insults to the fatal injuries.

"Die you god damned stinks!" Hale shouted as he let loose a fusillade of heavy .30 caliber rounds, each of the massive projectiles tearing massive chunks out of the Chimera that dared to stand before him. As he neared the shuttle, he could hear the unmistakable whirring of a HVAP Wraith being fired. When he reached the top of the platform, he could see Capelli firing his minigun into the attacking chimera.

"Capelli, is the shuttle ready to go?" Hale asked as he sprinted onto the landing pad.

"Yes sir, shuttle is warmed up and ready to leave" Capelli replied.

"Good. You have about a minute and a half to get out of here."

"You aren't coming sir?" Capelli asked.

"No Capelli. You heard what Malikov said. I have three hours left to live before the virus kills me. I would rather die fighting than be turned into one of them" Hale replied as he fired a burst into the skull of a ravager.

"Alright sir" Capelli sighed as he continued "it has been an honor."

"Likewise, now get on that shuttle before I throw on"

Capelli nodded, and averted his eyes from Hale. He walked up the ramp and into the cockpit. Before long, the shuttle was lifting off and flying away from the ship. Hale had found Capelli to be a troubled soldier with his own issues, but he was still redeemable in the end. He wondered if the war would finally be over, if his final sacrifice would ensure the survival of humanity. He hoped so. He looked at his watch; he had about ten seconds before the bomb went off. He shot a chimera from the hip, his rifle tearing though the thing's chest.

9… Hale said a quiet prayer

7… What if we failed?

5… Did we win?

3… Will Capelli make it?

1… Hale felt at peace, and waited for the end.

0… Hale felt a massive rumble emanating from the center of the ship. His ears popped, his sinuses and lungs collapsed, the pain from which felt like he was being torn apart from the inside as the sensitive membranes and alveoli in his lungs were rent asunder by the shockwave, and he felt a horrible burning all over him, as if the gates to hell itself opened in front of him. He saw chimera collapse to the ground, writhing in agony as their exposed flesh burned and peeled away from the radiation. Hale's vision swam, dark tendrils enclosed around him as he slowly slid into unconsciousness.

******  
Commander Christopher K. Shepard, US Navy liaison to the Systems Alliance, was angry. Not at anyone in particular, just at the grating buzz of the alarm clock that tore at his ears when he woke up at 5:30 a.m. Earth time. He rose from bed, still groggy and in a daze, and half walked half stumbled over to the bathroom. One of the luxuries of working for a well-funded paramilitary organization was that the standard of living was far greater than that of the military. He shaved, showered, and brushed his teeth all at the same time, a trick he learned while in the Navy. Feeling slightly more human, he walked over to his closet, or the closest thing to a closet that he had on the Normandy SR-2, and pulled out a set of Navy khakis. Though he had rank in the Alliance, he considered himself a United States naval officer. With a practiced care, he pinned the silver oak leaf cluster to his collar, and looked himself in the mirror. At around 32 years old, Commander Shepard cut a striking figure in his naval uniform; a uniform that he thought was much better looking than those of the Alliance. His short, brown hair combed over, his craggy face with clearly visible laugh lines, and his neutral, brown eyes all belied the fact that he was a well-honed machine of war. He walked out of his room, his officer's cap sitting neatly on his head. He looked forward to grabbing some chow and coffee, black as any good naval officer would drink, and then go reminisce about the good ol' days with Garrus. Before he could indulge in his rosy visions of the perfect morning, Jeff Moreau AKA Joker called him over the intercom.

"Uhh, commander? I just picked up some really weird radiation spike. Skynet over here says that the signature is consistent with a low yield nuclear detonation" Joker said, likely smirking at the jab he made at EDI.

"That is correct Mr. Moreau. The radiation is similar to that produced by early fission type weapons. I am also detecting other energy signatures that I cannot identify." EDI said, seemingly oblivious to Joker's comment.

"Is it a threat? Can you identify the source? Is it a reaper?" Commander Shepard asked, his voice tinged with worry.

"Based on what little data I have pertaining to Reapers, I don't think that this is a Reaper. The source cannot be identified until we get eyes on" EDI replied, her electronic voice showing no hint of emotion.

"Alright then. Joker power up weapons and put us on a course to the location of this signature. ETA?"

"Around four hour's sir. You can still go about our morning routine" Joker answered.

"Tell me when we are an hour and a half out"

"Aye sir"

The two and a half hours passed by relatively quickly, with Shepard eating a decent breakfast with a large mug of coffee and spending an hour and a half talking to Garrus, catching up and swapping war stories. After what only seemed like a few minutes, Joker's voice announced over the intercom

"Commander, we are an hour and a half out. Might want to get the team together and suit up"

"Roger that Joker. Call Jacob and Mordin to the hangar bay. Garrus you are coming with, sound alright?" Shepard asked, knowing that Garrus was still in bad shape courtesy of a Blue Suns gunship.

"I wouldn't miss it for the world Chris. See you in the hanger bay"

"See ya there. And Garrus try not to get into trouble. You look ugly enough already" Shepard chuckled

Garrus just laughed and shook his head. Shepard smiled. He and Garrus had been together since the beginning, two soldiers fighting for the same cause. They were two of a kind. Down in the hangar bay, Shepard met up with his team. They were already suited up and armed, ready and raring to go investigate.

"Possibilities incredible. New species and tech maybe, or ancient technology. Can't wait to study." Mordin jabbered excitedly. The salarian just wasn't comfortable without something to experiment on.

"Or it could be a Reaper trap. You know how they are" Jacob stated, clearly not as excited with many variables that came with the discovery.

"Enough speculation team. We won't know anything solid until we see the thing, which should be soon" Shepard said, cutting off the rampant speculation.

"Hey commander, we have a visual, patching it through to your HUD. No EDI, I am telling you that your readings are wrong. There is no way that it could be a starship and run without eezo" Joker said with annoyance dripping off his words.

"Something wrong Joker?"

"No commander, it's just that EDI says that it isn't getting any eezo emissions from the ship. Here is the feed now"

What Shepard saw amazed him, to say the least. First off, the ship was massive, easily comparable in size to Alliance dreadnoughts. Another striking feature was the teardrop shape. It seemed similar to Reapers, in that it seemed organic, but that was the end of it.

"You may be right Mordin. This very well could be a new species. Joker, try hailing it. EDI, can you tell me what I am looking at?"

"I am hailing the ship now commander. As far as identifying the ship, I cannot. The shape and residual energy readings match no known ship profiles, council or otherwise" EDI answered.

"Alright team, we don't know if this thing has atmosphere on board, so seal your suits, and be prepared for radiation. We don't know what we're getting into so be prepared"

With that, Shepard and company boarded the shuttle and began their journey to the alien ship.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: All right sorry guys, I am still getting used to the interface, and if I did own Mass Effect and Resistance, I wouldn't be writing crappy fan fiction. Sorry for the long update. See the poll on my profile for who is to be Hale's pairing in this story. And no worries, there shall be NO lemons, not on my watch.

Hale's head throbbed. _Am I dead?_ Hale wondered. Slowly, he returned to consciousness, his vision clearing as he regained his bearings.

"Looks like I am not" Hale stated.

As he rose from the floor, a wave of nausea hit him. He dropped to his knees, and felt his chest heave as he vomited. Immediately, he noticed something was odd about his puke. It was brownish red, with small, granular bits inside. _Radiation poisoning, this is just great; I survive a nuke only to be killed by radiation_ Hale thought ruefully. If he didn't get help, he would die. He glanced at his watch, a wind up one his adoptive father gave him, and noted something incredible. It was seven hours ago that he awoke on a cot in Malikov's tent in Louisiana. He lived longer than Malikov said he would. _Maybe I am not supposed to die; maybe I have got one more fight left._He looked out of the ship and saw nothing but black, interspersed with small, bright white dots. The realization hit him like a freight train. He was in space. What was even more surprising was that the EMP from the nuke was not enough to take out the shields, which were currently holding the atmosphere in the ship. Now, Hale realized, he was doubly screwed. To the best of his knowledge, SRPA didn't possess any form of spaceflight. As he gazed upon the stars, he saw a faint outline, maybe fifty miles away. It was not moving, just hovering there like a predatory fish appraising its victim. He then saw, much to his surprise, a smaller craft fly out of the belly of the ship. His curiosity turned to fear and worry when he noted the ship was fast approaching the landing pad he was on. He tried shooting a shockwave from his hand, but all that was produced was a wave strong enough to push away the corpse of a chimera. He checked his ammo; he had about half a clip for his trusty Folsom carbine, certainly not enough to deal with whatever was on the ship. Almost completely defenseless, Hale hoped and prayed that these newcomers were friendly as he retreated to a hiding place deeper within the ship.

Shepard inspected his M1911, racked the slide, and slid it into his holster. Many people asked him why he used such an archaic weapon. He simply appreciated the look, feel, power, and history of the weapon. Besides, it was a gift. He reached around and grabbed his Mattock, its stock extending as he pulled it from his back. An unmodified Mattock was, for all intents and purposes, a futuristic take on an M-14. This one had saved his life during the Skyllian Blitz. When he finally made it to a field hospital, the orderlies had to pry it from his grasp. He refused to use thermal clips in it, and lovingly cleaned the rifle after use. After making sure his weapons were in working order, he focused on the task at hand. EDI had pinpointed an area on the outside of the ship that appeared to be a landing pad, and recommended that they land there. Closer inspection revealed the surface was composed of an unknown metal. Mordin was practically drooling over what he could learn from inspecting the ship. They also found that the ship was venting atmosphere from fractures along the hull, though the shields prevented most of it from escaping. The fractures indicated a shockwave from an explosion that occurred deep within the ship.

"We're landing in 30 seconds. Check your weapons and fire. We don't know who or what is on this ship and we don't want them pissed off at us. Any questions?" Shepard asked.

No one said anything. Shepard nodded his head and stood up, grabbing the crash bar above his head.

"Ten seconds out, depressurizing" droned the VI.

The door slid open and a hiss of air escaped it.

"Strange. Atmosphere in ship at breathable levels despite hull fractures. Shields must be retaining the atmosphere" Mordin intoned.

"Well, here we are" Shepard said as the door opened fully and he jumped out onto the landing pad.

As he took cautious steps forward, scanning the area around him, he stepped on something. He moved his armored foot out of the way, and stooped down to grab the object.

"What is it commander?" Jacob asked wondering what his CO was holding in his hand

"A shell casing, brass, .303 British. There are a few of them lying around here, probably an automatic weapon. Whoever was on this ship was human, and had some old weapons. Hold on, I see something else" Shepard said as he began walking over to a puddle on the ground. The ship was dark, likely due to the fact no lights were on the ship. He knelt down and examined the puddle. He flicked off his helmet's filters and realized what the puddle was. Vomit.

"Mordin, I am scanning this puke with my omni tool. Can you analyze the results?" Shepard asked.

"Certainly commander… already done. Blood granules, slight traces of radiation, and the cells of stomach walls are present in the puddle, all signs of radiation poisoning, victim was human" Mordin stated

"There is no corpse here. Maybe our victim is still alive?" Garrus asked.

"Quite likely actually. Puddle is recent, no more than ten minutes old" Mordin replied, impatient and bored from just analyzing a puddle of vomit.

"The longer we sit here talking the lower the likelihood of this guy still being alive. Let's keep moving" Shepard stated.

The rest of the team continued moving through the ship coming across a strange looking body lying on the ground next to an alien looking rifle.

"What in the spirits name is that?" Garrus asked inquisitively.

The creature's body was almost identical to that of a human, but with clearly visible mechanical enhancements. The head, however, was entirely different. It had six golden eyes and massive fangs in its mouth. The bullet holes in its chest left no question as to the cause of death.

"Jacob, Mordin, carry this… thing back to the shuttle. We will meet you there. Garrus, you're with me" Shepard ordered.

Jacob and Mordin nodded, and picked up the corpse as Garrus shouldered the rifle. It felt alien to him. Out of curiosity, he pointed it at a wall and fired. A blue ball of light shot out of the barrel and struck the wall.

"I am keeping this Chris" Garrus stated, the glee obvious in his voice.

Shepard smiled, but the smile was wiped from his face as he heard footsteps behind him. He whipped around and drew his M1911, flicking on the flashlight of his omni-tool. Garrus followed suit, dropping the strange weapon and pulling out his vindicator rifle. What he saw stunned him. Standing before him was a man in a black jumpsuit with a green Kevlar tactical vest with what looked like an M-14 with a grenade launcher slung across his back, and the letters SRPA emblazoned on his broad shoulders. He had a shaved head with a slight five o clock shadow, was about six foot two, but the feature that most surprised Shepard was his eyes. They glowed orange, just like the creatures they found. Seeing that he had his weapon slung across his back, and his hands out in front of him, Shepard realized that he wasn't a threat and motioned for Garrus to lower his weapon.

"If you don't mind me asking mister, who the hell are you?" Shepard asked, still suspicious of the newcomer.

"Lieutenant Nathan Hale, United States Army. Might I ask who you are?" Hale said politely.

"Commander Chris Shepard, US and Alliance Navy." Shepard replied.

"A swabbie? Didn't know you guys had spaceships. Then again, not much can surprise me at this point." Hale replied.

"Same with me lieutenant. Your equipment looks kind of archaic by today's standards. What year do you think it is?" Shepard asked. He had a feeling about this man. He was quite similar to the commander, and Hale seemed like someone he could trust.

"Last time I checked sir the year was 1953, but I have a feeling that isn't the case" Hale answered.

Shepard was surprised at Hale's observation. "Our ship doctor said that someone here had radiation poisoning. Would that happen to be you?"

"Yes sir. When the nuke went off I must've gotten a pretty heavy dose. My regen didn't do squat for that"

"Nuke?" Shepard said incredulously "never mind that. We will be able to help with your radiation poisoning. In return, I would like your help fighting the collectors. We can discuss this more once we get aboard the ship. You don't have to help, but it would be appreciated"

"Sounds good commander. Shall we be leaving now?" Hale asked.

"Yes we will Lt. We are marking this location so that Cerberus can come back and salvage what it can from this wreck, much as I would like to blow the damn thing away. Come on, let's start heading back" Shepard wanted to debrief this man as soon as possible. He had a lot of questions that needed to be answered. Garrus, Shepard and Hale walked back to the shuttle in silence. As they passed by a rather large alien corpse, Shepard asked what the thing was.

"That, sir, is a Chimera, a titan to be specific. From what I gather, you people have no idea what they are" said Hale, sounding surprised that they had no knowledge of the chimera

"Care to enlighten us Lt.?"

"The chimera are a parasitic species. I don't know much about them other than the fact they are hell bent on wiping us out. They converted humans into chimera by using a virus. By 1953, most of humanity had been wiped out, but hopefully we beat them after destroying their fleet" Hale said "Maybe the Chimeran towers did more than we thought they did"

"It would seem so. I am starting to think that you aren't of this universe"

"That does seem a little far-fetched commander" Garrus replied.

"Think about it. He thought that the year was 1953, was surprised that we had no idea what the chimera are, said he was fighting these chimera on Earth, he is on a ship with tech that is completely unknown to us, and EDI picked up unknown energy readings. Those could be from some sort of space time dilation. The only chimera I know of is the one from ancient mythology" Shepard said before continuing "Hell, I hardly believe it myself. Hale, Garrus, I suggest we start heading back.

The group nodded in agreement, and began walking to the shuttle. Once they were all aboard, the shuttle closed its doors and made its way back to the Normandy.


End file.
